Experimental research on the evaluation of left ventricular systolic function by layered speckle tracking before and after berberine treatment in a cardiac hypertrophy rat model

Abstract Background We aimed to detect the cardiac dysfunction in the early myocardial hypertrophy rat model by layered strain and to evaluate the effect of berberine on the left ventricular systolic function of myocardial hypertrophy rats. Methods 80 healthy SD rats were randomly divided into 4 groups. The last three groups(ISO group) were injected with isoproterenol intraperitoneally to establish a model of myocardial hypertrophy;After successful modeling, group A and group B were given berberine hydrochloride intragastric administration (5mg/kg; 10mg/kg), and group C was given the same amount of normal saline by intragastric administration. The left ventricular systolic function was performed at the end of each trial using the layered strain technique. The myocardial tissue of rats was taken for pathological examination, and Masson trichrome staining and hematoxylin-eosin staining were performed. The myocardial interstitial fibrosis was evaluated and the correlation analysis was performed. Results The GCS, GSCendo and GSCmid of the ISO group were lower than those of the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (− 20.46% −29.57% −19.39% vs. −15.71% −20.11% −15.35%; P < 0.05). After berberine treatment, the GSCendo in group A (5mg/kg) and group B (10mg/kg) was higher than that in group C (− 24.49% vs.−26.87% vs.−20.09%; P < 0.001); The improvement in group B was more significant (− 24.49% vs.−26.87%; P < 0.001). Pathological results showed that, compared with the control group, fibrosis was significantly increased in the ISO group. After 7 days of berberine intragastric intervention, compared with group C without intervention, the fibrosis deposition in group A and B was reduced, and the fibrosis deposition in group B was more obvious. Spearman rank correlation analysis showed that Gscendo was positively correlated with the percentage of myocardial interstitial fiber deposition. Conclusion Persistent cardiac hypertrophy leads to marked myocardial fibrosis and necrosis. Berberine can inhibit the progression of myocardial fibrosis after the formation of cardiac hypertrophy. The stratified strain technique can identify early myocardial systolic dysfunction in patients with cardiac hypertrophy and evaluate the efficacy of short-term drug intervention, which is expected to be a new method for clinical quantitative evaluation of left ventricular systolic dysfunction.